Union Hall Arts Residency
Sponsored by the UNITE HERE Education and Support Fund (501c3 in partnership with Talking Dolls Studio
Detroit, MI
August 10 – September 7, 2026
Welcome artists and union members!
This summer, the UNITE HERE Education and Support Fund (UHESF) is teaming up with Talking Dolls Studio to pilot a Detroit-based art residency for 4-6 emerging artists who are rank-and-file union members. This pilot prioritizes non-professional artists and is also open to professional artists or other cultural workers who can demonstrate an interest or intention for creative practice beyond the scope of their primary employment.DOWNLOAD INFORMATION BOOKLET HERE
This is a paid residency to provide union members financial support to take a four-week leave of absence from work to concentrate on their creative practice. Artists of all stripes – visual artists, filmmakers, designers, musicians, poets, performers and more – are encouraged to apply.
As part of this application, applicants must submit a personal video or written statement, plus ten images (or examples) of their work. Applicants must also have a statement of support from their sponsoring union.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT IS MAY 15, 2026 APPLY HERE!
We're unleashing the working-class creativity desperately needed for our times.
Every successful movement for lasting social change requires arts and culture. Artists give us joy and life in dark times, cutting through the noise and fostering the creative thinking that allows us to imagine a better future.
So much of the most enduring and popular forms of art and culture have come from working-class communities. Detroit’s autoworkers made Motown. Spirituals sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Quilters unveiled the truth about HIV/AIDS.
This summer, we're igniting a new wave of art through the labor movement.
We are tapping into the countless numbers of artists among us and thinking broadly about where creativity lives. We will bring new voices and established artists together to make art for our movement and become the labor arts leaders for our time.
It's been decades since the labor movement has centered the arts, but the next best time is now.
Authoritarian regimes past and present—and the ruling classes that support them—have understood the power of culture to keep workers divided and distracted, using art and new technologies to create mass appeal for anti-worker politics.
But workers create a better world.
Unions keep us connected and keep us human, mobilizing worker power so that people can lead full, healthy lives with time to do the things we love. Culture is how people make life livable, creating joy in otherwise oppressive systems. Art is how we survive and thrive. We are making space to create again.
JOIN US, APPLY HERE!
